The Mad House

In Another Century

"You're going to confuse Victor if he sees that on your finger." John warned.
"Well it's his ring, why should be confused?" Sherlock insisted.
"Wearing a ring always means that you're not available. No one is ever willing to ask if that ring was their own centuries beforehand." John warned with something of a little snicker.
"I think he'll know." Sherlock assured, turning his hand over so that he could admire the way the ring sparkled on his finger.
"You're really excited about this guy, aren't you Sherlock?" John presumed, leaning back in his chair in hopes that the slight blush in his cheeks would be hidden away by the light of the early sunset. Already he was beginning to feel angry, angry that Sherlock seemed to want to forget that he wasn't in just one singular relationship back then. He was angry that Sherlock didn't want to remember their own connection all those years ago.
"Well of course I'm excited. He's...well I suppose he's my soulmate." Sherlock pointed out, talking in a quiet little voice as if he knew he was supposed to be embarrassed when using that word.
"That's quite the heavy word to use." John warned.
"We were engaged!" Sherlock pointed out. "We must have been so in love..."
"There are a million reasons to get married, Sherlock. Only one of them is love." John corrected, sipping at his coffee with his eyebrows raised a bit confrontationally.
"You neglect to realize that about ninety five percent of all marriages fall under that one category, though. I'm sure that I loved him, I would never marry if I didn't." Sherlock pointed out.
"Perhaps you wouldn't now. But I think we can both agree that you did some things in your past that are not exactly akin to your own morality today." John pointed out with a little sigh. Sherlock nodded, staring down at the pastry on his plate and looking as though it was a bit hard to stomach it right now. Evidently Sherlock didn't like to be reminded of his history, he didn't like being reminded repeatedly of the horrible things he had done to have money.
"John, you don't think that...well you don't think that perhaps back then we had loved each other?" Sherlock questioned. John blinked, not expecting Sherlock to bring such a topic up, especially not when they had to return to their room and sleep the night beside each other! He felt a wave of embarrassment wash over himself, for it was still very obvious that Sherlock looked at him and saw nothing but a brick wall. This boy was about as perceptive as a door mat when it came to emotions; certainly he hadn't realized that even in the present there was a possibility that they loved each other. He spoke of their past as if it was ridiculous, as if what happened in the past had stayed in the past! He never sat down to ponder whether or not John would be willing to make such an offer again.
"I definitely think there was something, well something not too far from love. Perhaps just lust, perhaps I was just a paying costumer." John suggested in a very small voice.
"I don't think you'd be back here if you were." Sherlock corrected quietly.
"Why not? I lived in that house; certainly I deserve to be here whether or not I actually had any feelings?" John scoffed.
"Well the maids lived there as well, and the cooks, and the butlers. But you don't see their names popping up in history, you don't see their photographs hidden about the house for us to find. It keeps who it thinks it interesting, John. It keeps them inside of itself, it keeps them coming back. I suppose those it finds truly interesting are those who have degraded themselves far past their usual standards, all for the sake of someone they just met." Sherlock suggested.
"You're saying I had degraded myself for you?" John clarified in something of an interrogating way.
"Well in that letter you speak a lot about the ungodliness of it all, how you seemed to have gone mad yet could fight it off no longer." Sherlock pointed out.
"You sound as though you've memorized the thing." John muttered.
"I have a professional curiosity in it, that's all." Sherlock corrected, crossing his legs under the table a bit shamefully and trying to hold himself up a bit taller. John watched him, wondering of course what other things he may be hiding behind that pretty face. What other professional curiosities he had taken, in the area of their past relationship.
"Well then perhaps I had fallen in love and gone a bit crazy. Perhaps that's why the house wanted me back as well; it wanted its lovers and its interruption." John suggested.
"But it made a mistake, didn't it?" Sherlock pointed out. John hummed his confusion, sipping at his coffee in an attempt to keep his lips from trembling.
"Did it?" he asked curiously.
"Well it was too late with you. Or rather, you're not who it expected you to be. Not anymore." Sherlock pointed out.
"Because I'm married?" John presumed.
"Exactly." Sherlock agreed, not even looking ironic. He just nodded his head right along, as if he believed marriage to be some sort of unbreakable agreement. As if he assumed that John's marriage to a woman meant that there could no longer be anymore feelings within him. Oh what a fool Sherlock had become!
"Well perhaps it will have to feed me some madness, then." John suggested with a shrug.
"Perhaps it will." Sherlock agreed quietly, looking towards John with a rather glassy look, as if he was staring at him and seeing so much else. Perhaps he was a bit taken aback at what they had just agreed on, on what they had just clarified without ever giving it the proper title. Somehow without too much stuttering or blushing they had agreed that John was destined to fall in love with Sherlock (for the boy was still unaware that it had already happened), they had agreed that John was the interruption in Sherlock's soulmate agenda. Well that was the perfect disguise, wasn't it! How easy it would be just to blame it on the house if John's advances went ignored, how simple it would be just to tell Sherlock that he had fallen into a fit of madness, and had forgotten himself. At the same time, John knew now that while he may be able to make the advances, well perhaps Sherlock had an even better reason to excuse them. He might be able to brush John aside, reminding him that he was going mad. He might be able to disregard the feelings that John had been struggling with for so long as merely a fit of hysteria, something that would pass when he escaped from the house's walls once more. Sherlock seemed to believe in soulmates, yet perhaps he didn't consider the fact that love traveled with everyone, not just those who were engaged to be married.